


A Lot in Common

by Fenriss



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Cunnilingus, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Femslash, Femslash February, Foe Yay, Friends With Benefits, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Interspecies Sex, Lekku fetish, Tribadism, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 20:05:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3394658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fenriss/pseuds/Fenriss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After turning her back on the Jedi Order, Ahsoka realizes she has some unfinished business to attend to before leaving Coruscant. She owed an apology to a longtime adversary who had, against all probability, recently become something like a friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lot in Common

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve never understood why, after the last few episodes of season 5, there wasn’t a flood of Ahsoka/Ventress fic! It just seemed like a no-brainer. So I was compelled to write this. 
> 
> Also, how was "lekku fetish" not already a tag here?
> 
> Many thanks to my wonderful husband Anacharsis and my lovely and talented girlfriend isabelroznoy for their beta work. If this story is any good, it’s mostly their fault. All errors are mine. MTFBWY!
> 
> Edited to add 10-9-16: Holy cats, I've just gone over 100 kudos! With a femslash rare pair, that feels like a very high honor indeed. I am so grateful to everyone who has read this, given kudos, and especially to the folks who have kindly made related works! <3 <3 <3
> 
>  
> 
> \-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After she’d stood uncertain for a few moments at the foot of the steps, after she’d set her jaw and reminded herself of all of her unassailable reasons for leaving, Ahsoka set out for the public park that was just a few city blocks from the Temple grounds. It was one of the first places Anakin would come looking for her, because he knew perfectly well that it was her favorite place to go when she needed to clear her head.

But Anakin wouldn’t be coming after her. Not this time.

Even when he’d stood, hand outstretched, offering her the chain of beads that she had worn as a padawan braid, he already knew she wasn’t going to accept it. He’d been hoping against hope, but Ahsoka could sense that her master was already grieving. The rest of the counsel didn’t know. Most of them genuinely wondered if she would agree to stay. But her bond with Anakin was too deep for him to fail to see what was in her heart. He’d made the gesture anyway, and when Ahsoka had gently closed his hand over her braid, it was only confirmation.

He had said that he understood, more than she knew, the desire to walk away from the Order. But Ahsoka _did_ know. She saw more clearly than anyone, even Obi-wan, how conflicted Anakin was becoming day by day. She feared that those seditious, betraying words Barriss had said at the trial had found a more sympathetic ear with her master than anyone else realized.

The thought of Barriss made her a little ill, and she hugged herself around her middle as she walked. She had no idea what to make of it. She had been betrayed in the grossest fashion by the friend she had held closest, aside from Anakin and Master Obi-wan. In Ahsoka’s world the kind of deceit Barriss had practiced was just unthinkable. Why? How could someone show her such enduring kindness, and then go so far as to frame her for murder and treason, no matter how right she thought her cause to be? If only Barriss had come to her and talked with her about her concerns, maybe they could have worked it out, and made their case together before the Counsel. And maybe all those lives could have been saved.

None of these thoughts mattered in the present though. Ahsoka did her best to shake them off. Dwelling would only make it harder to break with her past. She would have to leave Barriss’s fate to Barriss. And Anakin’s fate to Anakin.

Ahsoka reached the park, and found a quiet bench where she could think. The whole of Coruscant was one vast capital city. No original forests grew anywhere on the planet, and the flora that survived was preserved in parks like this one. It was lovely in the fading light of the early evening. The warm breezes which carried floral and earthy scents were soothing and familiar. She had no memory of living anywhere else, and it was unsettling to know that her time on this world was drawing to a close. Still, there was no doubt that she had to go.

She had no memory of Shili, and no reason to think that her family there would welcome her return, especially since she’d turned her back on the Jedi Order, and abandoned the war effort. She was already toying with the prospect of visiting the colony on Kiros. She had been instrumental in saving her people there from the Zygerrian slavers that had been preying on them. Perhaps she’d find some meaningful work helping the pacifists of that world learn to defend themselves, and in turn they could teach her more about her own kind. What it meant to be Togruta. Ahsoka didn’t know what direction her life was going to take in the long run, but that seemed as good a place to start as any.

There were preparations to make, of course. She’d kept a private account under an assumed name just in case she ever needed it. Her funds were far from limitless, but modest accommodations, food, and transport to Kiros were not going to be a problem. If she chose to, she was sure she could be off world before morning, but that would have to wait, at least for a little while.

A number of things weighed on her mind. She hated that she hadn’t got to say a proper goodbye to Rex—Rex who had at times been so much more than a Second in Command to her—or the rest of the men she’d help lead through the months and years of this war. She thought wistfully of Padmé, and Madame Jocasta, Master Plo. She’d lost so much more than just the title of Jedi, and a pleasant place to live.

As much as all of this saddened her, they were things she could accept. Had accepted. But there was one matter that had to be redressed before she left Coruscant.

Before Barriss’s confession, it had been so easy for Ahsoka to assume that the masked woman who’d attacked her at the munitions warehouse had been Ventress. In her own defense, it was indeed Ventress’s lightsabers that the assailant had wielded, but even during the fight Ahsoka had her doubts about her attacker’s identity.

Later, when Anakin had found the sabers in Barriss’s quarters, and had brought the terrorist to justice, Ahsoka had been ashamed that she’d so lightly pointed the finger at Ventress. Ashamed that she’d taken the easy expedient of casting blame after the woman had helped her, fighting off the clones that had come after her, when Ahsoka hadn’t the heart to raise her hand against her own men. Ventress had even taken it easy on them, disabling their weapons instead of killing them, presumably for the sake of Ahsoka’s sensibilities.

All of this Ventress had done on the mere promise that Ahsoka would do what she could to secure her a pardon. And even that, Ahsoka hadn’t been in a position to provide. She hoped that Anakin would speak up for Ventress now that he knew the truth, but she doubted he’d go very far out of his way.

In all her often lonely years in the Temple, Ahsoka could always count on her conscience to be her constant companion. She’d been blessed with an overabundance of integrity, and sense of personal responsibility. She would have to find Ventress and ask for her forgiveness before she could move on. At least this time she wasn’t being hunted.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ _It was confirmed today by spokesbeings from the Temple of the Jedi Order that Ahsoka Tano, padawan to Master Jedi Anakin Skywalker, has voluntarily taken leave of the Order. Rumors began when Tano was absolved of the charges of treason and murder that had been brought against her in the recent bombing attack at the Temple. Those charges were dropped after a confession to the crimes by another padawan, whose name has not yet been released._

 _There had been some speculation that Padwan Tano would have difficulty continuing on at the Temple after the damning affair. Although the Order insists that Tano was immediately reinstated after she was cleared of the charges, it seems that as of this evening, she has indeed officially taken her leave. We’ll have more on this story as it becomes available._ ”

Ventress muted the sound on the HoloNet. This turn of events certainly put her in a pensive state of mind. She had never expected the kid to leave voluntarily. She had given equal odds on her being acquitted and staying on, or being executed despite her innocence.

The brat had more of a backbone than Ventress had given her credit for. And now it looked like they shared even more in common than when they’d fought side by side, just a few days prior. Now they were _both_ orphans of the Jedi Order, and its impractical, heartless ideals.

Ventress stood and paced from her chair to the single window in her room, and drew back the curtain. Quite a view of the blighted area, full of miserable shanties and questionable businesses. She couldn’t deny that up until the present, it actually _was_ her kind of place. She fit right in with the local rabble. There certainly wasn’t anyone with their nose so high in the air that they’d be looking down it at her in a neighborhood like this. Her savings from her most recent jobs could keep her ensconced in comfortable squalor for quite a while.

At least long enough for Dooku to get a fix on her location. _There_ was sufficient reason to move on. She’d be glad to face that wretched maggot when it was time, and on her own terms, but she didn’t relish being caught off guard.

Maybe it was time for some fresh air. Having spent her entire adult life as a feared warlord, then a Sith apprentice, and finally a bounty hunter hadn’t exactly earned her a lot of goodwill in the galaxy, so she was thinking about some sparsely populated Outer Rim world where she could quietly hone her skills and meditate on her path. Somewhere far from the futile machinations of people who couldn’t even live by their own codes. Far from this pointless war.

She needed a shower.

Fortunately, she had one of the few suites in the hotel equipped with an attached ‘fresher. It was tiny, but it did include a sonic shower. She’d have preferred water, but you take what you can get.

When she stepped inside the small room, her eyes fell on the brown leather roll of person grooming tools she always kept with her. She opened it, and brushed her fingers over the blade of volcanic glass that was strapped inside. She’d taken it off of one of the Weequay warlords she’d killed so many years ago. She had no idea what its origin might be. It was a knapped blade of a deep black color, and for almost a decade, it had kept her scalp shorn to show off the growing pattern of tattoos on her head.

At long last, it was starting to lose its edge. She gave a small, humorless laugh at that thought.

Perhaps she was, too. \--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a meal, Ahsoka felt a little better. She knew that the Core Worlds were used to catering to obligate carnivores with a smile, but wondered if upon venturing outward, she might find the far more frequently omnivorous populations less comfortable with her diet. At least her fellow Togruta on Kiros would be sure to feed her.

She drummed her fingers on the table, once more glancing up at the open window into the kitchen to see if the diner’s proprietor was there, and she was pleased to catch a glimpse of the jovial Besalisk wiping his upper hands on a dish towel, gently berating a clumsy busboy as he walked toward the counter. Ahsoka kept looking at him until she caught his eye.

“Ahsoka Tano! What brings you here, little one? Why, I haven’t seen you since you were knee-high to Master Plo,” said Dexter Jettster as he walked toward her booth, holding out both sets of hands to her in a cheerful welcome.

Ahsoka knew that was an exaggeration, as she had been into the establishment a number of times throughout her life on Coruscant, but it was sweet to be remembered by someone under the circumstances.

“Hi Dex. It sure has been a while.” Ahsoka said with a warm smile. She started to rise, but Dexter wedged his considerable bulk into the booth opposite her instead.

“So, what’s this I hear about you giving up on being a Jedi?” he asked. Ahsoka wasn’t surprised, because Dexter seemed to know everything fifteen minutes before it happened.

“Well, honestly, things haven’t gone too well for me with the Order lately,” Ahsoka said. “It’s not really something I feel like talking about, if you don’t mind.”

“Aww, honey, of course that’s fine,” Dex said, briefly touching her hand with one of his own. “But ya gotta let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you out. You got somewhere to go?”

Ahsoka nodded, even though she didn’t really know where she’d be laying her head down next.

“Thanks so much, but really I’m OK. I was just wondering, seeing as how you are the omniscient oracle of this city, if you could provide me with a little information.” She figured it wouldn’t hurt to butter him up a little.

Dex snorted. “Hah! Nice try, kiddo. I’m too old to be taken in by flattery. But luckily I like you enough to tell you anything ya wanna know anyway.” He really was so charming.

“Well, I’m sort of looking for somebody. Someone I’d really like to catch before either she or I leave the planet.”

“OK, who is it?”

Ahsoka glanced briefly around at the other patrons, then back at Dex.

“Would you believe me if I told you… Asajj Ventress?”

Dex’s enormous mouth turned down at the corners, his wattle sinking low onto his chest.

“Ahsoka, you know that one is bad news. I’d heard you were runnin’ around with her right before they brought you in. You might not wanna be a Jedi anymore, but why ya wanna keep company with someone like Ventress?”

“I don’t, really. It’s just… well, it’s just that she helped me out a lot when I was under suspicion, and I’m ashamed to admit that I did nothing to clear her name. In fact, I sort of implicated her. I owe her an apology.”

Dex shook his head, humming with displeased concern. “Well, then you can write her a letter, and I can make sure it gets to her. I don’t think you should be trying to see her in person.”

“I have to Dex,” Ahsoka said, shrugging her shoulders, and looking down at the table. “It’s hard to explain. She may not be a very good person, but… well, suffice it to say, I feel like this is the right thing to do.” She could give him reasons for seeking the woman out, but she didn’t think he was in a position to understand them.

“Alright, fine. If that’s what ya gotta do, I can’t stop you. But I’m afraid I don’t have a lot to tell you that you don’t already know. She doesn’t ever get topside that I know of. Prolly still hiding out, after deserting on the Seperatists. Last I heard she was in a hotel on 1312. That’s the best I can tell ya.”

Ahsoka sighed. “You’re right,” she said. “I already knew that.”

“Well, here,” Dex said, beginning to fish around in the depths of the many pockets of his apron. He produced a small pile of currency, bits of flimsiplast with notes scrawled on them, and other random little objects before coming up with the card he’d been looking for.

“Here we go! The Vid’ma Arms. I think that’s the name of the place. Sorry I don’t have a room number.”

Ahsoka took the card, and beamed at the Besalisk. “Well, alright! The name of the place is one more clue than I had before. I owe you one.”

“Eh. You owe me nothing. Anything for a friend.”

She stood, and gladly stepped into Dex’s four-armed embrace, before heading for the door.

“You take care of yourself, little one,” Dex called after her. Ahsoka waved, and dashed out into the street.

It was time to take public transport down a few levels. A lot of levels. The transit system on Coruscant was divided into two tiers: one for the wealthy who lived mostly on the surface levels, and one for everyone else.

The one for everyone else wound in a long slow decent into the Lower Depths, and it was a ride of more than an hour to Level 1312. A place where the sun, literally, did not shine. All light had to be generated artificially down that far.

Of course, it was possible Ventress was long gone, since there was the ever present threat of her former Sith master trying to take final vengeance on her, but Ahsoka had no other leads.

She tried to absorb herself in an article about the small but growing resistance to the war that seemed to be forming on both sides of the Republic-Confederate divide, but she found her thoughts scattered and uneasy. She put away her datapad again, and tried to be gentle with herself. It wasn’t just every day that a person put behind her everything she’d ever known, and tried to strike out to make a positive difference in the galaxy, with no support and no plan.

Ahsoka leaned her head into her hands, elbows braced on her knees, and tried to breathe slowly and calmly. She successfully brought her breathing into a steady and slow accordance with her heartbeat, and as her teachers always promised, such a practice did leave her feeling much more at ease.

“Level 1312,” said the smooth, robotic voice. Ahsoka stood and walked out onto the rubbish-strewn platform. There were little groups of people here and there, many of them huddled near small fires, since late summer on the surface equated to mid-autumn down below.

Less than 20 minutes walking brought her to the familiar corner. It wasn’t a very welcoming environment. _“Not everyone on Coruscant lives in a luxurious Temple on the surface,”_ Ventress had told her. It was funny how little time the masters of the Order had spent reminding padawans of that fact. It seemed to Ahsoka that awareness of the plight of the poverty-stricken ought to have been a common theme. She was sure that Anakin and Obi-wan would have a ready explanation about how all of their energies had to go toward the war effort, and they would be at leisure to work on society’s other ills after they’d won.

Strange how little distance she’d had to put between herself and her masters before so many of their narratives started breaking down and losing their meaning.

Ahsoka now stood in the lobby of the Vid’ma Arms, trying to think of how to proceed. There was no chance that Ventress was registered under her real name. She didn’t relish the thought of sitting around, waiting to catch her coming or going, if she was even still in the hotel at all. Ahsoka couldn’t be entirely sure, but when she reached out with her mind, she thought she could sense the woman’s Force presence nearby.

That didn’t get her very far, though. She wasn’t about to go knocking door to door, so she decided to try her luck with the concierge. If they turned out to be uncooperative, a little mind trick would probably help. It was immensely liberating not to have to worry about whether or not some action of hers would be perceived as a “frivolous use” of her Force abilities.

She found her way to the front desk, behind which a Rodian woman sat staring at the HoloNews.

“Pardon me, ma’am, can you help me?”

The Rodian looked up, a little blankly. This was Ahsoka’s first direct interaction with an actual denizen of the lower depths, and she couldn’t help wondering if the lack of sun and fresh air might make them all a little listless and slow after a while.

“What can I do for y--…oh, my!” the woman said.

Ahsoka looked over her shoulder, then back at the concierge. “What? What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Well, I hardly expected we’d ever see the likes of _you_ here!” she said, her large, black eyes glittering with something like excitement.

It took Ahsoka a moment to realize what was going on. She’d grown accustomed to seeing Anakin or Obi-wan or Master Windu on the HoloNews. Their names were practically household words. But it never occurred to her that she had become so recognizable herself. She realized with a little trepidation that the woman had probably seen all the “wanted” posters that bore her image only a few days ago, and which doubtless still littered the streets here and there.

“Oh! No, no, I… I’m not a criminal!” Ahsoka began, her heart sinking at the prospect of having this conversation with every being she met from now on.

“Oh, I know, dear,” said the Rodian woman, smiling that strange, long-snouted smile. “You were acquitted. I just saw it on the holo a little while ago.”

Now it was sinking in that she wasn’t going to be seen as a dangerous renegade, but a minor celebrity with a sordid history for people to gossip about. Great. That wasn’t an improvement.

“Well, yes,” she said, bringing her arms to her shoulders and rubbing them, and glancing down. “Um, anyway, could I ask for your help finding a… a friend of mine who’s staying here?”

“Oh, I’m sorry dear, we can’t divulge our tenants’ room numbers unless… oh! Of course! How silly of me.” The Rodian struck herself lightly on the forehead. “Since I know who you are, I can give you that message I have ...it’s meant especially for you, Master Tano!” She seemed terribly proud of herself for recognizing Ahsoka’s identity. She began rummaging around under her desk.

Ahsoka was confused. She was beginning to doubt the flighty concierge’s sanity. “A message? How… from whom?”

“Well, I assume it’s from your friend, dear. Human I think, but very pale. Tattoos. Not the nicest temperament, really…”

“That’s her, alright. But how…”

“Ah! Here we are,” the woman said, handing a small folded note across the counter to Ahsoka.

It had a simple adhesive seal, though nothing secure enough to keep prying eyes from its contents. All there was inside was a number. Presumably a room number. Ahsoka stared at it for a moment, as if the three digits could tell her how Ventress would know that Ahsoka would come looking for her.

She looked up at the concierge. “Thank you,” she said, and then turned and started walking to the lift to take her to the fifth floor, where she had to assume Ventress was waiting for her.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Door chime. Ventress sighed, set down her writing, and called her blaster from across the room to her hand, just in case. It was probably just housekeeping.

When she got closer to the door, she knew she’d been wrong.

Huh. So the Jedi brat decided to stop by after all. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. She couldn’t read the girl’s intentions through the door, although she could tell there was no particular hostility there. She’d left the note with that ditzy concierge on the off chance that the girl came looking for her after her acquittal. Most people would never know how many wasted gestures and little efforts went into appearing uncannily prescient and mysterious. This time it would seem to have paid off. Imagine that.

The door chimed again. Ventress was the last person in the galaxy to be troubled about leaving someone waiting. But there was no reason to delay the inevitable. She opened the door.

She glanced down at the petite Togruta, and managed something that wasn’t quite a smile, but succeeded in not being a sneer either.

“Come on in,” She said, gesturing with the blaster she still held in her hand. Tano stepped inside, and the door slid shut behind her.

The kid did not hesitate to get right to the point. Although Ventress noticed that she kept her arms tightly wound around herself as she spoke.

“Listen, Ventress, I’m not here to waste your time. I really just wanted to find you so that I could thank you and… uh, also apologize for some things.”

At that, the young woman finally looked up at Ventress, and Ventress could see that she was seeking affirmation that she could continue to talk without provoking an incident.

Ventress sighed. “Why don’t you have a seat, then?” she said, gesturing with the blaster to the couch that was almost the only furniture in the parlor of the small suite.

Tano gave a terse nod and walking into the parlor, tucked herself into a corner of the couch, arms still pulled around herself. This looked to Ventress like the body-language of shame, and she was curious what that was about.

In contrast to the padawan’s closed-off posture, Ventress casually tossed the blaster onto the narrow table in front of the couch, and leaned into the other corner, crossing her arms behind her head, and stretching out her legs onto the table.

“So,” she said. “What’s all this about?”

“When I was on the run,” Tano started, “you helped me, when you had plenty of reason not to. You could have turned me in for the money but you didn’t.” The girl looked down at her hands, which she had finally pulled out from under her arms and crossed demurely in her lap. Almost like a folded flower. How sweet.

Ventress let out a dismissive breath. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” she said. “It was mutually convenient.”

“Not really” Tano said “It was… it was much less than convenient for you. And much more than that to me.”

Uncertain what the girl could mean, Ventress opened her mouth to speak, but Tano lifted a hand to halt her. Ventress chose to comply.

“Just let me explain, please. You… you protected me. You fought off the clones that came after me. You didn’t even kill any of them, at my request. And do you think I didn’t notice that hand on my shoulder when Anakin was so close to catching us?”

Ventress rolled her eyes. “Your complicated relationship with your master is no concern of mine,” she said, trying to deflect the direction this was going, and keeping her gaze anywhere other than on Tano’s.

“I have some confessions I need to make, and I need you to hear me out,” Tano said.

Ventress drew a long breath, but didn’t stir.

“OK,” she said, still avoiding eye contact. “Shoot.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“After we parted company, Barriss Offee attacked me. She had your lightsabers, and I thought it was you,” Ahsoka said.

“Hmm. That doesn’t surprise me much. She was the only other person who knew your location, and I _do_ watch the HoloNews,” Ventress said.

“You don’t understand,” Ahsoka said. “I saw that she had your lightsabers, and… and I guess I sort of implicated you. I didn’t know for certain that it was you but I jumped to conclusions…”

Ahsoka found herself suddenly without the firmness she’d hoped to have when she initiated this conversation. She collapsed a little bit inside, and so did her posture. She couldn’t have told anyone who might have asked why, in all the Hells, she was allowing herself to show that kind of weakness in Ventress’s presence, but she was rather beyond caring anymore.

“She was my friend. Or I thought she was. I… I don’t know what a friend is anymore,” Ahsoka said, “and frankly, I don’t have many people left who’re even candidates for the position now that I’ve left...” She couldn’t continue. She looked down at the floor, suddenly wondering what the kriff she was doing here, pouring her heart out to someone she recently counted as a mortal enemy.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Ventress stood up, and walked to a cabinet from which she produced a bottle and two glasses. She turned and plunked the glasses on the table, and pulled the cork out of the bottle with her teeth.

“This is Whyren's Reserve. A finer sauce you will not find in this sector,” she said.

Ahsoka was impressed. As little as she knew of alcoholic beverages, Whyren's was the kind of thing that Padmé served at her more important functions.

Ventress poured, and Ahsoka took her glass with a little trepidation. Padawans weren’t encouraged to imbibe, but intoxicants never affected the Force-sensitive for very long. And getting the edge off her anxiety would be welcome. She sipped the potent libation. It burned a little going down, but the flavor was deep and mellow, and very pleasant.

Ventress threw back her drink and poured another at once. Ahsoka calculated that, despite Ventress’s greater height, their body weights were probably almost equivalent. She wondered at the other woman’s alcohol tolerance, as Ventress filled her glass a third time.

“This is pretty good,” Ahsoka said. “I’ve seen it served a few times, but I’ve never partaken before.”

“Hmm. I would imagine there are a lot of things you haven’t partaken of. Indulgence isn’t really encouraged in the Temple, is it?” Ventress’s voice sounded even huskier than usual from the harshness of the liquor.

Ahsoka sipped her drink again, trying to think of what to say to that.

“So, does offering me a drink mean that you’ve forgiven me for incriminating you?”

Ventress gave her a half-smile, and a moment of eye contact that was so brief it almost seemed shy.

“Sure. Nothing to forgive. If you’ll pardon my saying so, I’m probably the greater authority here on unforgivable sins,” Ventress said, arching a delicate brow, sipping at her drink. Apparently slowing down on her alcohol consumption.

Ahsoka boldly poured herself another, inspired by a puzzling feeling that it would be better not to let the other woman get too far ahead of her.

She took a moment to really look Ventress over for the first time since her arrival. She was dressed in a loose black tunic that wrapped and tied around her small waist, and a pair of featureless black leggings. She was barefoot. Ahsoka tried not to giggle at the notion that a Scourge of the Jedi, one of the only people to leave a lasting scar upon her master, appeared to be hanging around in loungewear.

Either it was the strong drink, or the fact that she was in a reasonably safe place for the first time since leaving the Temple, but Ahsoka felt herself begin to relax a bit. A part of her was resistant to that sensation, but it was the same part she associated with the life she was trying to leave behind.

Ahsoka drained her cup, and set it down on the table. She stared at it for a moment, her intuition telling her that she was at some kind of a cross-roads regarding this little encounter, and she’d better make up her mind about leaving or not now.

“Listen, I’m really sorry to have troubled you,” she said. “I just… I needed to get that off my chest. That’s all.” Ahsoka inclined her head in deference, and made to rise from her seat.

Warm, white fingers wrapped around her wrist, not restraining, but suggesting. Ahsoka’s eyes darted to Ventress’s face, startled and confused.

Ventress’s eyes were closed against something Ahsoka couldn’t see or understand.

“Kid, you are _way_ too noble for your own good. You give yourself away on your best intentions.” Ventress turned her face toward Ahsoka, opening her strange, luminescent eyes, so large and silvery-blue in the dim light of the room.

“Sit with me a while longer,” she said, and it wasn’t exactly a request, but it was nothing like a demand either.

Ahsoka sat.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ventress knew she wasn’t drunk. She had that pleasant warmth that came with the “lightly buzzed” stage. Only an absolute di'kut would allow herself to become intoxicated in the presence of a long-time hostile.

But she knew Tano wasn’t hostile now. The depth of the young woman’s confusion was a little amusing, but also an annoyance, because she’d hoped they weren’t going to have to start from square one. She saw where this was going, and for some reason, she welcomed it.

She wasn’t sure when she’d started wanting anyone’s company again. She’d once been so quick to attach herself to the first person who had offered comfort and contact. If she’d learned a single lesson about the folly of such trust, she had learned a million.

Didn’t matter anymore, though. People’s paths crossed so briefly in these tumultuous days. The odds that she’d find herself alone with one person who shared so much of her precise, personal damage profile were infinitesimal. The odds that she’d ever find another?

She took a bracing swallow of her drink, and turned herself toward Tano. She tilted her head, and reached her arm out very slowly, so as not to spook the girl. She raised a hand to Tano’s right montral, and gave the most delicate stroke all the way down to the tip of her lek. She watched in fascination as the chevrons there actually flushed from blue to black, the colors swirling like a fluid wake behind her fingertips.

Tano’s eyes half closed, and her breath skipped. Ventress couldn’t help smiling at the delightful reaction.

That was that, then. Force-sensitivity aside, the greenest padawan stepping out of the Temple for the first time would be unlikely to miss the message.

Ventress retreated to her corner of the couch, and toyed with her glass, waiting to see what would come of it.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahsoka swallowed hard, trying to recover from the unexpected intimacy of Ventress’s caress. She turned her body toward Ventress, trying to be open and unthreatening. That was her Jedi convictions coming out, of course. Always show compassion toward one who’s been hurt. She could think of a few people she knew who’d been hurt pretty badly, but none worse than Ventress. Still, she felt she needed to go down fighting.

“You- you’re getting me drunk to lower my inhibitions,” Ahsoka said, trying to make her smile look amused, instead of nervous.

“You’re wrong,” said Ventress. “I’m trying to get drunk to lower _my_ inhibitions. Do you think it’s easy for me to trust you?” She quickly poured another drink. She finished it in three quick swallows. She let her hand rest on Ahsoka’s, feather-light and unobtrusive.

Ahsoka let it sink in that she wasn’t the only one out of sorts in this situation.

“It was _you_ who first observed that we had a lot in common,” Ventress offered, and then the pads of her fingertips began stroking in a rather artless, fidgety pattern over the back of Ahsoka’s hand.

It was the very awkwardness in that touch that put the first crack in Ahsoka’s resistance. The instant she’d caught on that Ventress was trying to make a pass at her, she’d been steeling herself for the full-on seductress routine. Something about Ventress’s voice dripped with it. Something about how she moved when they’d dueled always evoked a haughty sort of sexuality.

But with the simple realization that Ventress was actually a little nervous, the witch, the Sith, the adversary that Ahsoka had loathed was all at once just a woman, like herself.

Ahsoka shifted the short distance down the couch into Ventress’s space without hesitation. She did nothing else but to put her shoulder in contact with the Dathomiri woman’s, and lace her fingers into the hand that had already volunteered for the job.

“You’ll get used to being alone,” Ventress said. “Might take you a while, living so long with all those other people, but you’ll get used to it,” She lifted her hand, squeezing Ahsoka’s fingers between her own, then releasing a bit, and doing it again. Her eyes were watching their hands. “You can’t ever trust anyone completely. Never,” she said, with a sigh that was very nearly heart-breaking. “But you can sometimes make temporary truces.”

Ventress turned her eyes to Ahsoka’s once more, too sad to be nervous anymore.

“If I were you,” Ventress said, seeming to sober, “I’d get the hell off Coruscant right now, and make for the outer rim as fast as you can, before the Order gets it into their narrow minds that you know too much to be allowed to escape.”

Ahsoka started a little. Such a thing had never occurred to her. Was there a real possibility that her own people might hunt her down?

“Y-you think I should run?” Ahsoka asked, still holding the other woman’s hand.

“I think it’s best that you find someplace out of the way where you can hide out for a while, yes,” Ventress said, a delicate smile playing about her dark, ample lips, as if her thoughts had already turned away from the subject at hand to… something else.

The sharp features Ahsoka had always thought of as grotesque gave Ventress a striking profile when they weren’t twisted in rage. Her bone structure was really very fine and graceful. She didn’t know whether or not to believe the stories she’d heard from her men about how the tattoos adoring her shorn scalp represented her kills during her early career as a warlord, but she had to admit that they framed her face in a pleasant way. It was, in fact, a rather beautiful face.

Ahsoka took a risk, and raised a hand to smooth over Ventress’s scalp. There was the slightest, velvety growth of white-blond hair there. “You’re not shaving it anymore?” she asked. She was utterly fascinated by hair. Her own race didn’t possess it, and only lower mammals on her planet did. It thrilled her that there were sophants who had hair. There was something primal about it. Animalistic.

Ventress grasped Ahsoka’s hand, but instead of pushing it away, she brought it to her mouth and kissed it. Considering all that had passed between them recently, it felt like an entirely natural thing for the woman to do.

“I’m letting it grow a bit, I think. I only kept it shaved to show the marks of kills I’d made. I’m not so proud of those anymore,” she said, her eyes dropping to the floor.

Ahsoka knew what that meant. It meant far more than Ventress would willingly let on. She bit her lip and looked up at the other woman, trying her best to think of something appropriate to say or do. She was almost relieved when Ventress moved first.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ventress came close to Tano then, wrapping a long, white hand around her chin. She let herself indulge in a slow, prurient smile as she leaned in close.

Tano felt wonderfully compliant, eager under Ventress’s gaze. She must have needed this as least as much as Ventress did herself. Some degree of familiarity after leaving her lifetime home.

After all this time hating each other, they could feel each other plainly through the Force, and if Ahsoka was feeling unsure about this, it would be clear. Ventress delicately investigated the girl’s emotions, and found to her satisfaction that Ahsoka seemed to feel the same longing for connection that she did herself.

She distantly wondered when she had started thinking of the girl by her first name, but decided it didn’t matter as long as she never made the mistake of saying it aloud. There were lines you didn’t cross, lest you ended up lost in someone you couldn’t trust. And you couldn’t trust anyone.

When Ventress brought her mouth to Ahsoka’s, she felt the young woman’s shoulders drop and her knee lean heavy against her own as Ahsoka released a great amount of tension all at once.

Ahsoka parted her lips and pressed her tongue into Ventress’s mouth, intent, it would seem, on showing that she was ready to meet Ventress on even turf. There was a slow, rhythmic slide to the kiss, hands softly brushing over cheeks, lips sucked between pressing teeth. Ventress smoothed her thumb over Ahsoka’s cheek and temple, sliding it into the crevasse where russet skin met striped lek. She’d figured that would be a good spot to focus on, and the young woman’s sudden, trembling exhalation confirmed it.

Ventress pulled back, her eyes still on Ahsoka’s, and sucked her own index finger into her mouth. When she pulled the wet digit out again, she ran it along the edge of the lek she’d been toying with to see if moisture made a difference. She was nothing if not thorough in her investigations.

When Ahsoka said “oh!” and her eyes fluttered closed, she determined that, yes, Togruta must have moisture receptors in that spot. Nice. Good intel.

Ventress was suppressing the urge to shove Ahsoka back into the couch, inch by inch, to take what she wanted from her. That was the part of her who thought nothing of others, and that was the way back to the Dark Side. Ventress knew her destiny lay in a different direction. She wouldn’t be the monster she’d been turning into anymore. The only thing that separated her from the likes of Dooku was the little spark of conscience that had failed to die in her over all the years of bloodshed.

“Uh…” Ventress realized that she was half straddling Ahsoka’s thighs now, but the short, narrow couch was insufficient to the moment, and both of them let out short, huffing laughs.

Ventress stood.

“I’ve got a bunk that’s technically supposed to fit two. Are you coming with me?”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahsoka had been sure about a few things in her life, and most of them were quite memorable, so she figured she could do worse than say yes. This had been growing between them since the moment Ventress had sprung on her, sweeping her lightsabers up to cross them under her chin, leaving molten clefts in the pavement behind them. Their faces so close, the mutually hostile banter had continued for a while, but they both had felt it even then.

She reached out her hand to take Ventress’s, and went with the woman to her bed.

They stepped into a small, darkened room, with little but a zafu for meditation, a lap desk for doing research, and a narrow bed. To Togruta eyes, it was difficult to make much out, but Ahsoka knew she’d adjust in a few minutes. It occurred to her that Dathomiri eyes were probably very well suited to this level of gloom.

Ahsoka sat on the edge of the bunk, and with an apologetic smile, she started fumbling with the clasps of her left boot, which would interfere with the removal of her leggings. She’d never been so irritated by how many fasteners the damn things had.

She heard Ventress sigh, and looking up, saw her make a slight gesture with one hand. All of the clasps on Ahsoka’s right boot came undone at once.

“Oh. Yeah,” Ahsoka said, feeling tremendously foolish. Once again, they shared a gentle laugh. When had she last shared a laugh with anyone?

She gave the clasps of her left boot a disapproving glance, and then it was out of the way too. She stepped out of the boots, and then she released the clasp to her belt, letting that fall too. She turned to Ventress with a small amount of anxiety returning to her eyes.

By all industrial standards, the bunk was supposed to fit two. Ventress didn’t seem very concerned about the insufficiency of the accommodations. After stripping off her leggings, she lay down, and dragged Ahsoka down with her hands on the young woman’s forearms, which were still clad in their light leather bracers.

Ahsoka let her legs swing up onto the bunk, and let her body come to rest at Ventress’s side. She reached an arm around the other woman’s waist, and tilted her toward herself so that they were face to face.

“I promise to never ask you any uncomfortable questions,” Ahsoka said very softly, because there were so many painful questions that could be asked. “I know that in many ways, my own crimes are as serious as yours. We’re both victims of this war, Ventress. Can we… just offer each other a little comfort?”

“I can think of no one else I could find it with just now,” Ventress said. Even though Ahsoka knew that was a lie, she let Ventress pull her down, rolling onto her back, and dragging Ahsoka on top of her.

Ahsoka settled with her knees on either side of Ventress’s narrow hips. When Ventress reached up to take her face in both hands, she brought herself willingly down into the kiss, which was more urgent than before. Hungrier. Ahsoka found herself tugging at Ventress’s tunic, her hands searching blindly for the ties with which to open it. She knew nothing about this act, or next to nothing. As Ventress patiently guided her hands to the fastening of her tunic, Ahsoka slowed her motions, trying to buy time to consider the situation.

In the Temple, she’d had some instruction. Part of the compromise between those who thought all Jedi should live a perfectly chaste life and those who understood that teenaged padawans were unlikely to accept such a restriction was that there would be extensive, if sterile, education. Years ago, Ahsoka had been shown holos of dozens of acts of erotic love, and subjected to dozens of lectures on the meaning of such acts, even if none of this held any significance to her at the time.

Later, especially in a handful of private moments with her Captain Rex, she was glad that she’d been exposed to them. There had been some abbreviated dalliances with a few other people—and she felt a deep pang to think of things what had almost happened with Barriss—but as far as lying for a night with someone who possessed a woman’s body like her own, Ahsoka was left without much other than instinct to guide her.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ventress lifted to allow her tunic to be pulled away, as she raked her eyes over Ahsoka’s lithe form. She raised her hands to the girl’s neck, and sought the clasp that undid her halter. When she found it, one pull brought it down in front of Ahsoka, leaving one more closure at the bottom, in the back to look for. Ventress cursed softly, keeping her eyes and her mouth from straying to Ahsoka’s partially revealed breasts and rolled up to bring her arms around Ahsoka’s back. She quickly found the clasp, and pulled the fabric away, letting it fall. Ahsoka started to push down her leggings, making a small sound of frustration when she had to lift up off of Ventress to wrestle them off.

Ventress sank back to the bunk, and both of her hands swept up Ahsoka’s abdomen, gathering both small, supple breasts into her hands. She leaned forward, and looking up to make eye contact, she closed her mouth over one red nipple, pressing and rubbing it with her tongue. She nipped lightly, but didn’t bite hard. Her days of biting hard were probably over. Maybe.

Ahsoka tipped her head back and groaned. She was full of the sort of youthful eagerness Ventress hadn’t left behind too long ago herself. But none of the ways she’d satisfied it then would be acceptable to her ethical standards now. She wanted to be sure that this was good for the fallen padawan as much as for herself.

Still sucking and tonguing at Ahsoka’s nipple, she felt the other woman shift her hips forward to bring their pubic bones together, bearing down hard to see how it would feel.

Ahsoka’s moan echoed her own. It was a successful experiment. No surprise to Ventress, but it was sweet how Ahsoka was just figuring this out. Must never have been with another woman, then.

Ahsoka rocked her hips, pushing harder with every stroke. Ventress knew how to make it better, so she stilled the girl’s hips with a tight grip, and pulled one of her thighs aside, out from under Ahsoka’s leg, and then closed it against the outside of Ahsoka’s hip, so that they were interlocked.

“Ah! Oh...” Ahsoka faltered a bit and started to fall forward, but Ventress clasped their hands, palm to palm, fingers interlocked. The wetness of their sexes were pressing together, and the velvet side of slick labia made Ventress gasp. She surged forward and grasped Ahsoka by the shoulders.

The young woman’s breath hitched, and for a moment, Ventress was afraid that she might fight, but she let herself be turned, and dragged down to the mattress. Ventress bit down on her own arousal, and remembering the sweetness to be found in deferring gratification, she slithered down Ahsoka’s body. She slid her hands up the undersides of Ahsoka’s thighs, and spread them wide.

She knew little about Togruta anatomy, but she knew plenty about humanoid women. The lovely, glistening folds of Ahsoka’s cunt were comfortable territory, and completely irresistible. The earthy tones of the girl’s skin deepened to red just inside her vulva, and the internal lips were an almost cherry color that Ventress couldn’t resist teasing open with her tongue.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahsoka labored to control her breathing as Ventress tongued her way inside her. She came up on one shoulder as if she meant to resist, but after a couple of panting breaths, during which nothing threatening happened, she found herself giving in to the delicious sensation of Ventress’s tongue rhythmically lapping at her opening. She threw her head back when that tongue pressed inside, and slid upward toward the hard knot of pleasure at the top of her slit, and started to massage it in circles.

Ahsoka rolled her hips in time with Ventress’s ministrations. She wished for something she could grab on to, and for one giddy moment she was irritated that the universe only chose to bring her hairless lovers.

“No, no, not yet,” Ahsoka said, reaching down to bring her hand under Ventress’s chin, bringing her face up, glistening with her own juices, and sliding down so that she could kiss her.

Ahsoka, dizzy with this new freedom to explore, licked at Ventress’s face, trying to get every drop, rocking her hips against the other woman’s.

“I want… want to come, uh!  I want to come together,” she said with something like a growl, and her questing fingers, delving ever lower, finally found the slick wetness of Ventress’s cunt.

She started to slide her fingers up and down the welcoming lips, finding the pulsing, hard center of the woman’s pleasure, and teasing it with a light touch. Ventress’s eyes fluttered closed, and her mouth opened wide, like she meant to let out a groan. Instead, the sound broke into an almost helpless litany of gasps.

Ahsoka aligned her arm so that she could put all the force of her strength into her hand. She brought her index and middle fingers together and plunged them into the liquid heat of Ventress’s opening. She allowed herself a moment of satisfaction when the woman groaned and pressed her hips down onto the invading fingers.

Her voice caught on an inhale as Ventress shoved her fingers into Ahsoka’s soaking cunt as well. Their hips locked together as they rocked through their climaxes, panting into each other’s mouths.

“Oh!” Ahsoka cried “Uh! So good…”

_________________________________________________________________

Ventress snarled, and caught Ahsoka’s lush lower lip between her teeth, sucking it into her mouth as she tried to keep the moment from fading.

So many things she might say in that moment presented themselves, as she rocked onto the young woman’s fingers. “I’m so glad you weren’t executed” and “It’s so nice that you sought me out” and “maybe you could come with me…’

“Ohhh, fuck!” Ventress cried, her pelvis pushing down against Ahsoka’s as she came hard, fluttering around Ahsoka’s fingers.

Ahsoka ground her hips, trying to get as much of Ventress’s hand into her as she could, hurdling fast toward her completion. She forced her eyes open to look up at her adversary; to take in the face of the woman she’d hated. She tried to find some kind of love for her as her eyes rolled back and she felt herself come apart.

__________________________________________________

Many long minutes later, when Ventress had rolled off of Ahsoka, and lay at her side, their breathing came back into equilibrium.

“It probably wasn’t smart for you to come here,” Ventress said. “You know the Separatists want me dead, and if they found you here, killing you would be a bonus.”

Ahsoka drew a deep breath.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. But I’ve always been a risk-taker. No reason to stop now.”

Ventress turned onto her side, propping her head onto her hand. “What about the Jedi? I know you don’t think they'll come after you, but if they did, this might be one of the first places they’d look,” she said. There was a hint of genuine concern in her voice.

“You need to let me worry about that,” Ahsoka said. She lifted a hand, and laid it on the side of Ventress’s face. To her delight, the woman gently pressed her cheek against it.

“I know you can take care of yourself, sweetling,” Ventress said.

And that was the nicest thing anyone had said to her in ages.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Lot in Common [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6347623) by [the_dragongirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_dragongirl/pseuds/the_dragongirl)




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